Trust That Voice

Boston, MA. 21ºC

"...First you are not going to like it. You are going to think that it's too soft. You are going to think that it's too classical sounding but that's what you need to strengthen because I promise that voice can sound just as loud, just as musical theater, just as edgy, whatever it is! You can even sound ugly if you want it to! But without having to be in your throat." - P.Murray

First time singing "I'm Not Afraid Of Anything" in front of the class. We rehearsed with Miranda in section before class. For being sick last week my voice is doing quite well.

It was not a bad first try. Notes for practicing:

1. We may need to increase a little bit the tempo once we are more familiar with the song and that will help specially towards the middle of the song "And I feel the calling of adventure...".
2. Since this song fall in my middle range I have to be careful with not letting the lower notes drop because then the higher ones get stuck in my throat. How? Think about how I sing "And he'll always beeeeee..." towards the end of the song. Bring that quality of voice into the rest of the song.
3. Breath: control more the timing for the breading. Cut off the long notes by 1/8 to catch a good breath and prepare for the next phrase.
   

When I was practicing the song, one of my concerns was how to sing the theme of the song. The "I'm not Afra____id of anything" phrase that appears every few measures. I want "afraid" to be soft but when I sing it suddenly the voice feels like hiding somewhere behind. And I hear it weak. But I don't want to belt it out because it sounds pushy and is not as expressive.

REVEALING SITUATION!

What it sounds to me weak or soft it's because my voice is out. It's free and released so I don't hear it as much. At first, it can be a scary thing. Where did my voice go?!?! By holding the sound inside, it sounds louder in my head but it's not going to necessary project any further.

For the more agitated part of the song, the one that JRB kindly marked with the guidelines "Intense and Tight" (nice!), try to identify the notes that get me in trouble. Work the song slowly so I can see which are the notes that I tend to drop. By working them individually and moving forward or backwards in the right position it will help the real tempo performance. It's difficult to work them at the real tempo because when it gets all so "intense and tight" and exciting it's so hard to identify them and make them work.

End of the song, "And I'm Not Afraid Of Anything! I'm sure to win with anyone at all!", try to find that free sound quality of voice. Find it with my crazy friend the "e" vowel. Crazy "e"! Find that quality of sound. First you are not going to like it. You are going to think that it's too soft. You are going to think that it's too classical sounding but that's what you need to strengthen because I promise that voice can sound just as loud, just as musical theater, just as edgy, whatever it is! You can even sound ugly! if you want it to, but without having to be in your throat.

Trust That Voice.

About Songs For A New World

Boston, MA. 21ºC

Jason Robert Brown wrote about the show:

I arrived in New York when I was twenty years old, and I spent my first five years in Manhattan working as a rehearsal pianist, arranger, conductor, vocal coach, piano bar entertainer, orchestrator, and just about anything else that would pay me while I was trying to establish myself as a composer. I'd write songs for anything and anyone, and after a while I had quite a big pile of music written for various people and various projects. I met a wonderful young director named Daisy Prince, and she and I took this vast and unwieldy collection of material and began to shape it into a revue. By the time "Songs for a New World" opened at the WPA Theater in October 1995, we'd culled the sixteen songs that best suited our narrative purposes and our four exceptional singers. Four of those songs are included here: "Stars and the Moon" is without question my most popular and performed song, and I originally wrote it for a cabaret night at a summer stock theater in North Adams, Massachusetts; since its debut in 1991, its interpreters have included some of my favorite singers in the world, such as Karen Akers, Ann Hampton Callaway, Betty Buckley, and the magnificent Audra McDonald, who recorded it on her first album. "I'm Not Afraid of Anything" is the oldest song in this collection, having been written in 1990 for a cabaret night in Weston, Vermont. "Just One Step," the story of a fed-up Upper East Side matron, was written specifically to showcase Laurie Beechman, who premiered it in Toronto; this book marks the song's first commercial publication. Finally, "Hear My Song" is the finale of the show, and it was originally written for Sally Mayes to sing at an AIDS benefit in New York. It's a song that gets done all the time at benefits and special events, and I'm very proud of this song's ability to inspire hope and strength within the performers and audiences who share it.

The Good Girl

Boston, MA. 21ºC!!!

Being a good girl means doing what your mom or your teachers tell you to do. So... I wanted to be a good girl and I picked the song for my class according to a sentence that got stuck in my brain "I'm Not Afraid of Anything is a great song for your voice but The Wizard And I may be a bigger challenge for your middle range voice". Bigger challenge? Here I go. Although, I like much much better I'm Not Afraid of Anything I decided to work on The Wizard And I so my learning process would be richer. jeje

My biggest mistake was to listen to the recording of Idina Menzel over and over again without spending too much time with the sheet music. The result... Me trying to do what she does in a really poor way. One, because it is not my way of doing it so is not as intuitive and natural for me and two, because she kind of uses her voice in a way that I'm not so familiar with like belting the highest notes. I just can't do it without being pushy and flat. So... It was not a great first time for the song. note: just learn the sheet music as it is and then if wanted, make MY OWN changes to personalize it.

But oh, surprise! Pam tells me that she likes better the other song for me but she thought that I wanted to do this one better. Misunderstanding... Oh, noooooooooo! I tried to be the Good Girl looking for the big challenge and it turned out to be that we both thought that I'm not Afraid Of Anything would be a better choice for me. Jajaja Sometimes life is funny...

Next time, I'm Not Afraid Of Anything from Songs For A New World by Jason Robert Brown.

Raquel- No matter what, always learning something new

02/05/2008 The Songs & Many Mumbling Mice...

Boston, MA. 1ºC

We start the second class a little bit early in order to give songs to the people that sang last week. Pam came up with two options for each one of us. That is really great. That's a lot of thinking for 20 people! Thanks Pam.

My two options right now are "I'm Not Afraid Of Anything" from Songs For A New World by Jason Robert Brown and "The Wizard And I" from Wicked by Stephen Schwartz. I'm excited about both of them but we decided to start working on "The Wizard and I" since it's going to be a bigger challenge for me. The goal is to work on not dropping the lower notes of the song that feel comfortable so I can reach later on the higher ones. It's all about working out the middle voice range! "I'm Not Afraid Of Anything" is not out of the game. I'll work on it as well but not as intensively right now.

We start the warm up with some exercises and I need to remark a special one that will always have a place in my heart and my warm ups now that I found out what am I supposed to be singing... The exercise is a tongue twister (specially for me!) that helps to awake all muscles in our mouth specially the tongue. It took me two classes to be able to sing it. If you want to join, sing along with me...

MANY MUMBLING MICE ARE MAKING MIDNIGHT MUSIC IN THE MOONLIGHT. MIGHTY NICE!

If you could make it at the third try... congratulations! That's much much better than what I did... and I do! :)

Today we could listen the rest of our classmates. Here's a little bit more of information about them:

• Alison sang "Soon It's Gonna Rain" from The Fantastics. She wants to sing "When I'm Not Near The Girl I Love" from Finian's Rainbow. She said; " I don't look for deep emotional songs."
• Heather sang "I'm Not That Girl" from Wicked. She showed us how scary she can be with her low E when she sings the last "I'm not that GIRL..."
• Biela sang "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" from Showboat. She took opera and musical theater lessons. She is up for anything. She likes dramatic or romantic songs.
• Damian sang "Maria" from West Side Story from the past semester. He wants to sing more fun songs. Who knows? maybe a little dancing...
• Brenda sang "Just One Of Those Things" from Lullaby of Broadway by C. Porter. She also wants to sing something fun.
• Trecia sang "Someone To Watch Over Me" from Oh!Kay by G.Gershwin. "I want from the class a song that I can audition with and work on my middle voice rage."
• Simone sang "A Stranger In A Car" a Capella. She stop singing for a while and she wants to go back and sing again.
  
• Steve sang a song that he didn't introduce... I'll ask him next week about it. He started to introduce himself like this: " I'm not much of a vocalist." Steve is studying performing arts and last semester was the first time that he got into the experience of singing.
  

One or two people are left to sing in front of the class. I guess next week will be the time for that. Some people (including me) volunteered to sing in front of the class next week with our new songs. So this week at home, I'll be practicing "The Wizard And I" annoying a little bit my neighbors.

WICKED AWESOME!

Rrrrraquel

01/29/2008 First Class

Boston, MA. 17ºC

Excitement all over! I enter the class and I could rapidly recognize several familiar faces from the first Cabaret class and from las semester Theory and Practice of American Musical Theater (What a long name!)

We started the class with a presentation exercise. We are supposed to pair each other with someone that we don't know. Interview them, find something in common and introduce this person to the class. Josh, was my partner. He is 24 and he is finishing his undergrad.

After that, we did a quick warm up and we started signing one by one in front of the class as our "voice presentation". A good way to get to know our classmates and their voices and a the same time a way to break down the tension of... Oh, my god! At some point I'll sing in front of the class. We did it the first day so we are ready for whatever comes!

More than half of the class had the chance to sing. Here's a little info from my classmates:

• Bob: sang "Sara Lee". He described himself as a "Pam Junkie". "It's been two weeks since the last class..."
• Ren: sang "Show Me" from My Fair Lady. She wants to work less on character songs and focus more in soul-kind ones.
• Mindy: sang "No Time At All" from Pippin. She answered to a classmate that asked her if she gets nervous before signing: "Getting nervous? Life is too short for that."
• Michael: sang "Maria" a sassy adapted version from The Sound Of Music. He wants to work on something more Poppy. Leave for a while musical theater songs. He has already worked on it before and wants a new challenge.
• Marianne: sang "You Can Always Count On Me" from City of Angels. After signing her song she said: This sounded better in the shower"
• Joan: sang "They Say It's Wonderful" from Annie get Your Gun. She performed long time ago and she wants to get back to it. After singing: "I was so scared! I could feel my legs shaking."
• Me/Rrraquel: sang "Come To Your Senses" from Tick,Tick...Boom! "Everyone is nervous but the important thing is to step up and sing. I just want to sing till I die!"
• Sarah: sang "I Get a Kick Out Of You" from Anything Goes. she performed a "maniac" version of it.
• Ryan: sang "There are Giants In The Sky" from Into The Woods. "Hi! I came for my dose of Pam." And after singing a special part of his piece and not being so convinced about it he said: "Wait, wait. This is Pam's favorite part of the song so let me do it again."
• Carole: sang "People Will Say We Are In Love" from Oklahoma. She sings in a choir and loves musical theater.
• Robert: sang "Marry Me A Little" from Company. He puts himself on Pam's hands for choosing a song.
• Sabrina: sang " Buddy On A Night Shift" from One Shine Follies. " I want to experiment more with the acting part of the songs and forget about singing."
• Josh: sang and played with his guitar his song.
  

Some people are left in the class that will sing next week. in the mean time we are supposed to look for "story-telling" songs and Pam will also send us some ideas just in case.

Rrrrrrraquel, for some reason my name is hard to pronounce here. He, he!

DRAM E-26 Creating Cabaret Theater: Storytelling Through Song

Boston, MA. 6ºC

Description of the class:

This performance workshop for intermediate to advanced singers explores how to approach a song, deeply explore its meaning, and draw from personal experience to create a final product that communicates a story. Each student works on solo pieces in a supportive setting to further his or her vocal skills and keeps a journal to be incorporated into a final paper. The class works together to develop these solo scenes into a final production to be performed at the end of the term.